Have a Pox Party!

[Guest guest]

Ambros is back from his visit to Germany. He dropped the

below article into my e-mail box while I was asleep.

 

While the article below is (imo) a good one, it shares a common

flaw with most other articles dealing with any illness, plague,

disease, or epidemic -- it never speaks clearly about one very

important aspect of contagion. — the degree to which one's immune

system can handle the illness. They make it seem like some random

fluke that some people die from some particular illness, while others

barely get ill. Perhaps the quote below will elucidate what I am

saying here:

 

" Through a physician in Brittany, Nonclercq came across a

thick tome on the history of a medicine (5) in which she read that, on

his death bed, Louis Pasteur had declared: 'Claude Bernard was

right... the microbe is nothing, the terrain is everything.' What

Pasteur omitted was that his confession had been based not on single

insightful statement by France's leading physiologist, Bernard, but by

Antoine Béchamp, the man with whom he had been locked in struggle for

decades. "

— Christopher Bird

 

My re-phrasing of the quote above is a bit more long-winded,

but aimed at modern humans not schooled in the struggle between germ

and terrain theories. It goes something like this:

 

If a human (child or adult) likes his or her life

livelihood & companions, eats a good healthy diet, supplements with

sufficient vitamins & minerals, gets plenty of bed rest (8-10 hours a

night), drinks plenty of clean un-cholorinated water, and does not

regularly indulge in debilitating drugs (like junk foods, caffeine,

tobacco, antibiotics, vaccines, other allopathic drugs, etc.) that

person will have a well nourished healthy immune system, which is much

more likely to be able to handle *any* illness or disease (from

chickenpox to smallpox to bubonic plague) much better than a person

who eats lots of junk foods, is bereft of vitamins and minerals, is

chronically dehydrated, never gets 8-10 hours of sleep per night,

hates his or her job, regularly has fights with h-is/er family,

regularly indulges in debilitating drugs (like tobacco, alcohol,

caffeine, sugar, allopathic drugs, etc.)

 

Alobar

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

A Pox on My Child: Cool!

By Shannon Henry

Special to The Washington Post

Tuesday, September 20, 2005; Page HE01

 

When Trish Thackston's 7-year-old son, Connor, broke out with

chickenpox recently, she quickly scheduled play dates with four

families over the next four days at their Alexandria house.

 

The kids made art projects with glue and glitter, worked side by side

on dinosaur puzzles and shared spoons, all with the intention of

transmitting the illness to the healthy children. Her son, thrilled

not to be sequestered from friends as he usually is on sick days, said

excitedly one morning: " Who's coming over to catch my chickenpox

today? "

 

 

Xavier Scheeler, 15 months, center, and brother Max, 2, back right,

with their Alexandria play group. When one group member had

chickenpox, it was an occasion for a party. Xavier Scheeler, 15

months, center, and brother Max, 2, back right, with their Alexandria

play group. When one group member had chickenpox, it was an occasion

for a party. (By Tetona Dunlap -- The Washington Post) Playing Safe

With the Chickenpox Vaccine While some parents choose unconventional

methods to expose their children to the chickenpox virus, vaccination

remains the recommended way to limit the spread of the virus.

 

Some parents, including Thackston, are shunning the chickenpox

vaccine, introduced in 1995 and considered safe and effective by most

health authorities, in favor of the old-style method of exposing

children to the real thing at an early age. Today's parents may

remember their own moms and dads tucking sick siblings in bed with

healthy ones and inviting friends over to spread the illness.

 

Many who choose to expose their children believe that catching the

illness at " chickenpox parties " is safer and more effective than using

vaccines.

 

But some doctors and other health experts are warning that the

practice is dangerous. They say that chickenpox is an unpredictable

disease. A " wild " exposure may not necessarily make for a milder case,

or, on the other hand, guarantee the child will catch the virus. They

say complications from chickenpox can be life-threatening.

 

" Chickenpox is not necessarily a benign disease or a childhood rite of

passage, " said Curtis Allen, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention (CDC). " We don't recommend parents expose their

children. The vaccine is best. "

 

Allen points out that before the vaccination was available, there were

11,000 hospitalizations and 100 deaths annually in the United States

from chickenpox, also known as varicella. During 2003 and the first

half of 2004, the CDC reported eight deaths from varicella, six of

whom were children or adolescents. While the vaccine protects 70

percent to 90 percent of those who receive it, he said, those who do

contract the disease after vaccination usually get a milder case than

what occurs naturally.

 

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that children get

the vaccine between the ages of 12 months and 18 months. Schools and

day-care centers are increasingly adding the shot to their list of

requirements for attendance.

 

 

'Like Old Days'

 

Chickenpox is a highly infectious disease that causes tiredness and

fever in addition to its blister-like rash. In a mild case, a child

may get only a dozen or so lesions, while a full-blown case could

sprout several hundred pox. The lesions usually appear first on the

face and chest, but can spread over the whole body.

Chickenpox is generally transmitted by direct contact or through the

air from coughing or sneezing and lasts about five to 10 days.

Treatment usually consists of making the patient more comfortable,

often with fever-reducing medicines, topical lotions and soothing

baths. About one in 10 children has a complication from the disease,

according to the AAP. Complications can include infected skin,

dehydration, pneumonia and encephalitis. The CDC recommends keeping

children's fingernails short and discouraging scratching to avoid

infection.

 

Darlene White of Bealeton, Va., who successfully exposed all four of

her children (even one who had been vaccinated) to chickenpox, said

she questioned her decision when her 2½-year-old contracted the

illness.

 

" You could not even see healthy skin between the majority of the pox,

and her scalp had them so bad that she looked like she had gone

through radiation treatment, " said White. However, now that her

daughter is healed without a scar, she said she would do it again,

because she now believes her family has lifelong immunity -- something

experts say does not exist.

 

In an AAP survey published in May, 70 percent of responding physicians

reported that at least one parent had refused an immunization for a

child in the past 12 months. The chickenpox vaccine was the second

most refused immunization, trailing only the shot that combines

measles, mumps and rubella.

 

 

Playing Safe With the Chickenpox Vaccine

 

While some parents choose unconventional methods to expose their

children to the chickenpox virus, vaccination remains the recommended

way to limit the spread of the virus. reader forum

 

For those in favor of pox play dates, finding each other has become

much easier through the Internet, where parents can post e-mails on

message groups seeking the pox or offering their homes for a party.

 

Many parents who don't vaccinate their children or who use vaccines

sparingly worry that ingredients in the shots could cause autism or

other disorders, although no connection between vaccines and these

disorders has been proven.

 

When Laura Eisen wanted to expose her son before he started preschool

this year, she posted messages on Mothering.com and two message

boards. Eisen, who lives in Bethesda, asked friends and her

pediatrician to also point her toward any leads. She heard about a

child attending summer camp at a local school who had caught the pox

and contacted the child's family through the camp nurse. The parents

rejected Eisen's suggestion that they sponsor a pox party, saying they

thought sharing the pox might be a legal liability.

 

" That's when I knew I lived in Washington, " Eisen said.

 

This summer, Eisen and her son both caught chickenpox, though she's

not sure where. Eisen, who came down with it first, immediately called

a friend who also was searching for the pox, who brought her son over.

 

" I hugged him, coughed on him, let him touch the pox, " said Eisen.

 

The same friend a few years ago had brought her younger child over to

catch the pox from Eisen's youngest. " It's like the old days, " said

Eisen of the growing chickenpox party network. She remembers pox

parties being part of her own childhood.

 

 

Mind of Its Own

 

While chickenpox is sometimes extremely contagious, parents are also

finding it's not always easy to contract. That child who touched

Eisen's pox is, a few weeks later, still perfectly healthy. Sally

Holdener of Nokesville has been trying to infect her youngest three

children (her older two have already had the disease) with no luck.

 

She's been to a chickenpox party. And she went to a play group where

one of the kids had recently contracted the pox ( " prime time " in

chickenpox party vernacular) and stayed five hours. Part of the

problem is that children are most contagious just before the pox show

up, although they can still pass the disease until the scabs heal

over, a window of about five to 10 days. Holdener will keep trying,

because her family embraces a lifestyle that includes eating mainly

whole foods and not using any vaccines.

 

Mothering, the Magazine for Natural Family Living, published a story

last year celebrating the exposure method. The story suggests asking

pediatricians to contact you when a child comes down with the illness.

" Pass a whistle from the infected child to the other children at the

party, " it recommends.